Biman

Originally from Chandigarh India Harindarpal Singh Banga known as Harry has lived in Hong Kong since the 1970s. The former vice-chairman of the Noble Group made his fortune over a 21-year career with Asia’s largest commodity trader. He cashed in the last of his Noble shares in 2012 and started Hong Kong based Caravel Group … Read more

Lucio Tan is the founder and chairman of the $2 billion (sales) LT group which has interests in tobacco spirits banking and property development. In 1982 Tan established Asia Brewery. Now a subsidiary of LT the brewery was the only one then to compete with the market leader San Miguel. His eldest son Michael is … Read more

Chen Dongsheng is the founder and chairman of Taikang Life Insurance one of China’s largest insurers. Chen’s wife is the granddaughter of Mao Zedong the communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People’s Republic of China. Chen is a member of the board of directors of Xiaomi one of the world’s most popular … Read more

Robert “Bob” Fisher is one of three sons of Gap founders Donald (d. 2009) and Doris Fisher. He chairs Gap’s board and is managing director of the Fisher family’s investment firm Pisces Inc. Like his two billionaire brothers he attended Princeton where he played tennis and majored in English before heading to Stanford’s business school. … Read more

Victoria de los Angeles was born in Madrid Spain on October 1 1922 to a family of singers. She began her own singing career at the age of six and made her operatic debut at the age of seventeen. She has sung all over the world in opera houses such as La Scala in Milan … Read more

Thai Lee is CEO of $11.1 billion (sales) IT provider SHI International which has 20000-plus customers including Boeing and AT&T. Born in Bangkok Lee grew up in South Korea and moved to the U.S. for high school. A Harvard MBA she did stints at Procter & Gamble and American Express before SHI. Lee and her … Read more

FedEx founder Fred Smith came up with the idea for the company for a term paper at Yale in 1965. After graduation Smith served in Vietnam with the Marines. He returned home and launched FedEx in 1971. FedEx lost $29 million in its first 26 months so Smith flew to Vegas and won $27000 at … Read more

Saxophonist Von Freeman was born in Chicago Illinois on October 3 1923. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 14 and by the time he was in his early twenties Freeman was one of the most in-demand musicians in Chicago. He has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names in jazz … Read more

Ingvar Kamprad who died in 2018 transferred the bulk of his Ikea empire to foundations in the 80’s but kept enough to make his sons billionaires. Mathias and his brothers own Ikano Group which was created to manage Ikea’s real estate and financial service businesses but was spun out in 1988. Today Ikano Group is … Read more

Joe Lewis owns the Tavistock Group with more than 200 assets across 13 countries. Through Tavistock Lewis owns Premier League soccer team Tottenham and has a stake in U.K. pub operator Mitchells & Butlers. He has a variety of other investments including luxury club resorts restaurants hotels and an Australian agriculture firm. Lewis continues to … Read more